RIYADH: Shashi Tharoor, minister of state for external affairs, was at the centre of yet another controversy after his remarks here on Saturday evening that Saudi Arabia could be a “valuable interlocutor” between India and Pakistan.
The remark, in response to a question from a reporter, triggered a storm on Sunday, with many viewing it as a deviation from the country’s stand to treat the dispute with Pakistan as a bilateral affair, and reject all suggestions of third-party mediation.
Tharoor strongly argued that he had been misinterpreted as he had not used the word “mediation or anything like that”. He also tweeted, ruing the misinterpretation of the word “interlocutor”, while insisting that an “interlocutor was different from a mediator”.
